On Saturday the 16th September around sixty Sisters, Poor Clares and Franciscans, and friars from all over Morocco, met in Casablanca for a day of sharing, reflection, prayer and celebration.
The Moroccan Franciscan Family, which does not yet have lay people, is not very numerous in this mission land so special and so dear to Francis and Clare. It is made up of 11 apostolic communities, a monastery of Poor Clares and 5 fraternities of friars, but over a territory of over 600 kilometers in length!
The opportunities for us all to meet, to listen together to the experience of our father Saint Francis and to bear witness to our charism in the multiplicity of its forms are therefore not very frequent. The idea, however, is to meet every year, on the occasion of the Feast of the Stigmata, to start the year together.
For this first meeting it was the Abbess of the Poor Clares, Mother Cristiana, who shared with us her experience of La Verna in Morocco.
On the occasion of the Franciscan Centenaries and in view of the Chapter of the Mats of 2025, which calls us to rediscover and renew our charism together, friars and Religious Sisters will meet in each region for a day of community reflection during Advent.
The final sign of this journey of renewal is the diaconal ordination of one of our friars in the Cathedral of Tangier on Sunday the 22nd October. br. Marco, of the Croatian Province of Saints Cyril and Methodius, wanted to experience this grace amongst us, which makes him even more of a servant of this multicultural Church of Christians on the move and of the Muslim people who surround us.
br. Stéphane Delavelle ofm
